728. Faith – 2

“Rabbi Tarfon says, ‘The day is short and the work is plentiful; the workers are lazy and the reward is ample, and the landlord presses’” (Avot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 15). That is, when one believes that there is a landlord, that there is no capital without a leader, and when he fully recognizes that there is a landlord, he feels the pressure. It is as though a person is in a sealed house where there is no air, he feels the pressure and does all that he can, to the point of giving his life, in order to get air, since he says, “If I get no air I’ll die anyhow.”

Likewise, if one believes that there is a landlord to the world, he feels the pressure to obtain the air of Kedusha [holiness], since otherwise he sees that he is dead, and he does all that he can to obtain air of Kedusha. It therefore follows that only the landlord presses. That is, when he believes that there is a landlord, it makes him feel the pressure and the need for air of Kedusha.

At that time, he sees that the day is short, the work is plentiful, and the workers are lazy. He also sees that the reward is ample, meaning that it is a wonderful pleasure to adhere to Him, more than all the pleasures of this world. He feels that not only is the pleasure so intense, but that it is impossible to live without it.

This is also the meaning of “If you learned plenty of Torah, you are given ample reward, and you can trust your landlord to pay you for your work. Know that the righteous are given their reward in the future.”